# Shopify vs WooCommerce: Which Is Better for a UK Shop?

Source: https://dijitulwebdesign.co.uk/compare/shopify-vs-woocommerce/
Updated: 2026-10-18

> Shopify is the better choice for most shops that want reliable selling with little technical upkeep; WooCommerce is better when you need unusual product logic, deep content, or full control of your data and hosting. dijitul builds ecommerce websites on both platforms from £750 + VAT, and we price them the same, so our advice is impartial.

## Key facts

- Shopify's UK plans are Basic £19, Grow £49 and Advanced £259 a month billed yearly (Shopify UK pricing page, October 2026).
- WooCommerce is a free WordPress plugin; you pay for hosting, extensions and your payment gateway.
- Shopify Payments costs 2% + 25p per online UK sale on Basic; Stripe's standard rate for UK cards is 1.5% + 20p (Shopify and Stripe UK pricing pages).
- Shopify adds a 2%, 1% or 0.6% fee if you use a gateway other than Shopify Payments, depending on plan.
- Shopify allows up to 2,048 variants per product, raised from 100 (Shopify changelog, October 2025).
- WooCommerce stores orders in dedicated tables with High-Performance Order Storage, the default for new installs since version 8.2 (WooCommerce docs).

## The short answer

Shopify is a hosted shop. You pay monthly, and Shopify runs the servers, checkout, security and updates. WooCommerce turns a WordPress site into a shop on hosting you control. You get more freedom and no platform fee, but you, or whoever looks after the site, carry the upkeep.

If you sell standard products, want to spend your time on stock and marketing, and value a checkout that just works, pick Shopify. If your products are unusual, your content matters as much as your catalogue, or you want to own the whole stack, pick WooCommerce.

## Shopify and WooCommerce side by side

| | Shopify | WooCommerce |

| Platform fee | £19 to £259 a month billed yearly; Plus starts at £1,800 a month (Shopify UK) | None; the plugin is free |
| Hosting | Included | Your own WordPress hosting |
| Card fees | Shopify Payments 2% + 25p online on Basic, down to 1.5% + 25p on Advanced | Your gateway's rate, for example Stripe at 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards |
| Using another gateway | Extra 2%, 1% or 0.6% by plan | No extra platform fee |
| Extensions | Shopify App Store, mostly monthly subscriptions | Free and paid plugins, often annual licences |
| Upkeep | Handled by Shopify | WordPress, WooCommerce and plugin updates, backups, security |
| In-person selling | Shopify POS, built in | Possible through third-party EPOS integrations |
| Content and blogging | Basic | Full WordPress content tools |
| Data ownership | Export products, customers and orders as CSV | Full database on your own server |

## Working out the real cost

Start with your expected monthly sales, not the plan price. Take a shop selling £8,000 a month online in average orders of £40, so 200 orders. On Shopify Basic with Shopify Payments at 2% + 25p, card costs come to roughly £210 a month, plus the £19 plan. On WooCommerce with Stripe at 1.5% + 20p for standard UK cards, card costs come to roughly £160, with no platform fee, but you add hosting, any paid extensions and maintenance.

Those figures shift with your mix of cards and plan, and Shopify's higher plans cut the card rate. The point is that card fees, apps and staff time usually matter more than the headline plan price. We will run your own numbers through both before you commit.

## When the other option is better

Our usual starting point for a new product business with a straightforward range is Shopify. WooCommerce is the better choice when:

- Products need custom pricing, such as made-to-measure blinds, price by area, or trade price lists for logged-in customers. These often take several paid apps on Shopify.
- You already run a WordPress site that ranks well and want to add a shop without moving everything.
- Content drives sales: recipes, guides, courses or long buying advice, with products woven through.
- You need data on your own servers, or a deep integration with your own systems.

And Shopify wins when you sell in person and online from shared stock, expect sharp seasonal peaks, sell across several channels, or simply have no one to look after updates. A WooCommerce shop left unpatched is a real risk to your customers' data and your takings.

## Speed and search

Both can pass Core Web Vitals, which web.dev defines as LCP within 2.5 seconds, INP within 200 milliseconds and CLS under 0.1. Shopify's hosting is fast, but apps that inject scripts slow it down. WooCommerce speed depends on your hosting, caching and plugin count. For search, both handle product schema, sitemaps and clean URLs. WooCommerce gives more control over URL structure; Shopify's fixed /products/ and /collections/ paths do not hold rankings back.

## What we build

Our ecommerce package covers either platform: product and category structure built to rank, payments and delivery rules, click-and-collect, Google Merchant Centre feed, abandoned cart recovery and staff training. See Shopify website design, WooCommerce website design or ecommerce website design, and ask for a quote with your product count.

## FAQs

### Is WooCommerce really free?

The WooCommerce plugin is free. Running a shop on it is not: you pay for WordPress hosting, a domain, an SSL certificate if your host does not include one, any paid extensions such as subscriptions or bookings, and maintenance. For small shops these costs are often lower than Shopify's, but they are not zero.

### Which has lower card fees in the UK?

It depends on your gateway and plan. Shopify Payments charges 2% + 25p online on Basic, falling to 1.5% + 25p on Advanced. WooCommerce uses whichever gateway you choose; Stripe's standard UK card rate is 1.5% + 20p, per Stripe's UK pricing page. Compare using your own order values.

### Can WooCommerce handle thousands of products?

Yes, with decent hosting and a lean setup. High-Performance Order Storage, the default on new installs since WooCommerce 8.2, keeps order data in dedicated tables, which helps busy shops. Large catalogues need good filtering, caching and image handling, and that is a hosting and build question as much as a platform one.

### Can I switch from WooCommerce to Shopify later?

Yes. Products, customers and orders can be migrated with Shopify's import tools or a migration app. You will need a new theme, to rebuild any custom product logic with apps, and 301 redirects from every old product and category URL so rankings carry over.

### Which is better for selling in a shop and online?

Shopify, in most cases. Shopify POS shares stock, products and customers with your online store out of the box. WooCommerce can connect to EPOS systems through integrations, which works well if you already use a particular till system, but takes more setting up.

### How much does a Shopify or WooCommerce site cost with you?

Our ecommerce builds start from £750 + VAT on either platform. Larger catalogues, trade portals or complex integrations get a fixed quote. Your Shopify plan, apps, premium plugins, hosting and domain are separate running costs, and we list them in the quote.

## Prices and contact

Prices (from, + VAT): Starter £250 (Up to 5 pages, Custom design, not a template, Mobile-first build, Contact form and click-to-call, Google Business Profile set up, Basic SEO foundations, Analytics and Search Console); Business £500 (Up to 15 pages, A page per service, written to rank, Copywriting included, Full schema markup, Local SEO groundwork, Speed optimised to pass Core Web Vitals, Conversion tracking configured, Training session and recorded walkthrough); Ecommerce £750 (Shopify or WooCommerce, Product and category structure built to rank, Payments and delivery rules configured, Click-and-collect and local delivery, Accounts or EPOS integration, Google Merchant Centre feed, Abandoned cart recovery, Staff training on order management); changes £45 an hour. All prices are "from" and exclude VAT. Every project gets a fixed quote before work starts. Domain registration, stock photography, premium plugins or apps and hosting are listed in the quote, never added later. You own the website and the domain. Aftercare: Hosting from £1 a day + VAT (https://dijihost.co.uk/); Website care plans from £25 a month + VAT (https://dijitulsupport.co.uk/). Contact: https://dijitulwebdesign.co.uk/contact/ · 01623 650333 · info@dijitul.uk